JUNE 19, 1919
The President of the United States (Dr. Woodrow
Wilson)
PLEASE accept for yourself and Lieut. Brown my warmest
congratulations on your splendid feat.
The Lord Mayor of London (Sir Horace Marshall)
THB following telegram has been sent to Capt. Alcock
and Lieut. Brown by Gen. Sykes, Controller-General of
Civil Aviation : "I have much pleasure in conveying to you
the following message, which has been received from the
Lord Mayor of London : ' Will you kindly convey to Capt.
Alcock and Lieut. Brown the sincere congratulations of the
City of London on their splendid achievement, which fills
the citizens with pride and satisfaction.' "
The Lord Mayor of Manchester—
MANCHESTER is proud of the high and historic achieve
ment of two of her sons.
Col. Murray, United States Air Service
As representative of the United States Army Air Service
in Great Britain, I take great pleasure in extending to you
and your splendid crew our heartiest congratulations on your
brilliant achievement and the successful consummation of
your great historical flight.
Comdr. Towers
HEARTIEST congratulations from N.C. aeroplane division.
Mr. Claude Johnson, managing director of Rolls-Royce,
Ltd., received the following telegram signed by Capt. Alcock
and Lieut. Brown :—
Congratulations on performance of the two " Eagle "
Rolls-Royce engines, which propelled the Vickers " Vimy "
safely across the Atlantic.
In response to a telegram of congratulation to Capt. Alcock
and Lieut. Whitten Brown from the editor of the Daily Mail,
the following telegram was received from Galway :
" Many thanks for your congratulations. Thanks to the
Daily Mail, another milestone in aviation has been passed.
Hope to reach London to-morrow (Tuesday) night.
" ALCOCK AND BROWN."
Viscount Northcliffe has sent the following letter to Capt.
Alcock:—
" My dear Alcock,—
." A very hearty welcome to the pioneer of direct Atlantic
flight. Your journey with your brave companion, Whitten
Brown, is a typical exhibition of British courage and organising
efficiency.
" Just as in 1913, when I offered the prize, I felt that
it would soon be won, so do I surely believe that your won
derful journey is a warning to cable monopolists and others
to realise that within the next few years we shall be less
dependent upon them unless they increase their wires and
speed up. Your voyage was made more quickly than the
average Press message of 1919. Moreover, I look forward
with certainty to the time when London morning newspapers
will be selling in New York in the evening, allowing for the
difference between British and American time, and vice
versa in regard to New York evening journals reaching London
next day. Then we shall no longer suffer from the danger
of garbled quotations due to telegraphic compression. Then,
too, the American and British peoples will understand each
other better as they are brought into closer daily touch.
" Illness prevents me from shaking you by the hand and
personally presenting the prize. But I can assure you that
your welcome will be equal to that of Hawker and his gallant
American compeer, Read, whose great accomplishment has
given us such valuable data for future Atlantic work.
'' I rejoice at the good augury that you departed from and
arrived at those two portions of the British Cemmonwealth,
the happy and prosperous Dominion of Newfoundland and
the future equally happy and prosperous Dominion of Ireland."
ITEMS
CAPI. ALCOCK brought the mail bag with him to London.
At the Royal Aero Club he handed it to a representative of
the Daily Mail, who took it to the G.P.O. The letters were
delivered in London about 9 p.m. on Tuesday.
A RESOLUTION was on Tuesday introduced in the House of
resentatives by Mr. La Guardia authorising President
llson to confer the Congressional Medal of Honour upon
Capt. Alcock and Lieut. Brown, and expressing the admira
tion of Congress for their daring feat in flying across the
Atlantic.
CAPT. ALCOCK and Lieut. Brown will be the principal guests
at a luncheon to be given by the Daily Mail at the Savoy
ffi'gg)
Hotel at 1 o'clock on Friday, when the £10,000 prize cheque
will be presented.
THE Royal Aero Club will entertain Capt. Alcock and Lieut.
Whitten Brown at a banquet at the Savoy Hotel on Monday.
Members who wish to be present should apply as early as
possible to the Royal Aero Club, Clifford Street, W. 1, for
tickets. •
A Los ANGELES telegram states that Mr. Thomas Ince, the
picture producer, has telegraphed to Capt. Alcock offering
$50,000 (£10,000) for a trans-Pacific flight, and has made a
similar offer to Mr. Raynham.
AT Rugby the train was met by two Grahame-White
machines flown by Major R. H. Carr and Capt. Chamberlayne,
and they escorted it to Euston. They then carried out a
programme of interesting evolutions.
THE Rolls-Royce factory at Derby was closed on June 16,
n recognition of the part which the workers took in making
the engines of the Vimy.
THE Vickers employees at Brooklands also enjoyed a
holiday.
THE successful crossing of the Atlantic provided a crowning
achievement for Rolls-Royce engines. In this connection
it may be noted that on November 11, 1918, when Armistice
was declared, there were in possession of the Royal Air Force
Rolls-Royce Aero engines, of a total horse-power of over
1,000,000-h.p., which far exceeded that of any other make of
Aero engine in use.
WITHOUT detracting in any way from the wonderful perfor
mance of the Rolls-Royce engines, a word of praise may be
accorded to the Claudel-Hobson carburettors which played
their parts without a falter throughout the 16 trying hours.
They thus added one more to the sheaf of laurels which
they have won during the past few years.
SIMILARLY it is but just that mention should be made of
the fact that the Rolls-Royce engines were lubricated with
Wakefield Castrol " R." The crossing emphasised the great
efficiency of this lubricant when working in low temperatures
as at times various'parts of the machine were almost covered
with ice.
THE propellers for the machine were made by Messrs.
Lang Propeller, Ltd., of Weybridge, who are delighted to
have been associated with such an historic achievement.
To old readers of FLIGHT the name ofTCapt. J. Alcock,
D.S.C., will be familiar. He first saw the light in Manchester
in 1892, and was a born mechanic. After leaving school he
spent a short period in a motor works near his home and then
came to Brooklands. There he was taught to fly a Farman
biplane by Mr. Maurice Ducrocq, and after taking his certi
ficate as a pilot in 1912 he was flying a Sunbeam-engined
Maurice Farman on which he made some lengthy—for those
days—cross-country trips. He secured third place in the
London-Manchester race of 1914. On the outbreak of war
he joined the R.N.A.S., put in a long spell of instructing at
Eastchurch, won a commission, and eventually found himself
in the Eastern Mediterranean, engaged on bombing the
Goeben, Constantinople, etc., deeds which were recognised
by the D.S.C. It was while engaged on one of these bombing
trips that his'machine fell into the sea, leading to his capture
by the Turks, and the suspension of his] flying career until the
Armistice released him. Then he got into touch with" the
aviation;department of Messrs. Vickers, and when an entry
was made for the Daily Mail prize hejwas selected as the pilot
of the Vimy.
The name ofJXieut. A.|Whitten~ Brown is also known to
FLIGHT readers.who will remember that he recently set forth
in these pages some of his ideas on navigation which have
now been so excellently proved in practice. He was born
in Glasgow in 1886, his parents being American citizens. An
engineer by profession, he received his practical training with
the British Westinghouse Co., now allied with the Vickers
group, and becoming interested in flying studied aerial naviga
tion as applied to surveying. He enlisted in the University
and Public Schools Corps in 1914, later receiving a commission
in the Manchester Regiment, with which he served in France
in 1915. Later he transferred to the R.F.C. as observer,
and was wounded and taken prisoner. He was interned in
Switzerland and repatriated in 1917. After his return to
England he spent some time instructing and was then engaged
in the engine section of the Aircraft Production Department.
He has done quite a deal of flying at home stations.
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